Info searchcord.io - A Discord Search Engine Without the Need to Join Servers

[Too Much Screen Time]

Link:

Searchcord

(UPDATE: The search function has been taken down)

What is this?​

Created just this month, searchcord.io is a search engine that trawls through public Discord servers/guilds to return its search results. Servers scraped from, according to its About page, are ones that can be found on Discord's own discovery platform, plus apparently a few handpicked ones by the dev.

Who made this?​

Somebody named Reiko (archive). Seems to be one of those individuals, with replies to the comments on the project's ycombinator post (archive) not sounding... confident, or even prepared, for being the creator of such a big project.

How is this good (or bad)?​

With how much online information (project developments, game mods, tech support, etc.) are being gated behind Discord nowadays, one can now use this website to look for such information not found through common (and lobotomized) search engines, without the need to make a Discord account and all the rigmarole surrounding it. Of course, you still can't post anything in the servers, being a search engine and all. Also, not all servers are covered, so some useful information can still end up missing.

However, this also reinforces the fact that many people still use Discord as if it's a more private messaging platform. It's common knowledge that anything on public servers is public, it's just guarded by account requirements and these chats aren't indexed by Google and pals. From what I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, the scraper here uses Discord's own mechanism to pull all these chats (including deleted ones and from role-restricted channels) and servers. User searches by itself aren't allowed in order to prevent dox, according to the dev, and anyone whose data got scraped has the option to opt out, but anyone that knows about the individual enough can put two and two together eventually.

This is not the first tool to scrape Discord chats. spy.pet and user-made scripts have been utilized for a similar purpose albeit on a smaller scope (from what I know).

 

[Houseman]

You would have to be insane to join a public discord channel.

 

[Battousai]

Public servers are trash, filled with scammers and other malicious types. I don't know why you would even consider joining one of those.

 

[Arnox]

You would have to be insane to join a public discord channel.

Wait... I'm confused. Aren't most Discord servers public... ?

 

[Houseman]

Wait... I'm confused. Aren't most Discord servers public... ?

That could be 100% true.

And populated by insane people.

 

[Arnox]

That could be 100% true.

And populated by insane people.

It's just... A chat platform. It's going to have all kinds of people on it. What makes you think Discord servers have a ton of insane people on them?

 

[Lost-Zeneration-99]

That could be 100% true.

And populated by insane people.

Then wouldn’t that make us the pinnacle of insanity since we could and can go a lot more then a Discord sever could, since we have less rules and the freedom that they can’t get technically because it is still a corporate run platform?

 

[Battousai]

Most regular Discord servers are indeed public, and if they are popular and filled with lots of people these tend to get filled with really bad people. I don't mean internet trolls, that shit is everywhere lol, I mean people legit trying to scam you or worse. I used to be part of some TF2 servers years ago for example, scammers would constantly PM you with dumbass schemes to try to steal your steam account and your items. Same thing happened at my WoW guild when it was fully public for a while because they wanted to get lots of members, you simply attract the worst kind of people when fully public.

Most decent Discord servers require you to be invited period. Some servers they are public using a permanent invitation like the Discord servers for some streamers for example they tend to have a screening process initially where you have to form part of the channel for a set amount of time where you are restricted to a single general chat channel before you are able to access the rest of the stuff. Also they tend to actually have moderators, the system is not perfect of course and the people do get in from time to time, but at least they get removed quickly enough. Fully public servers aren't just chaos, they are cancer.

 

[Houseman]

It's just... A chat platform. It's going to have all kinds of people on it. What makes you think Discord servers have a ton of insane people on them?

Because only insane people join public discord servers. You would have to be in order to tolerate it.

Then wouldn’t that make us the pinnacle of insanity since we could and can go a lot more then a Discord sever could, since we have less rules and the freedom that they can’t get technically because it is still a corporate run platform?

I don't know what you mean by "go a lot more than a Discord server could"

 

[Lost-Zeneration-99]

Because only insane people join public discord servers. You would have to be in order to tolerate it.



I don't know what you mean by "go a lot more than a Discord server could"

I mean it as since we have less rules, then on paper wouldn’t we be more insane since we could push the boundaries farther then a Discord Sever could. Because it’s still a corporate platform.
Another case of odd phrasing on my end and late night posting.

 

[Houseman]

I mean it as since we have less rules, then on paper wouldn’t we be more insane since we could push the boundaries farther then a Discord Sever could. Because it’s still a corporate platform.
Another case of odd phrasing on my end and late night posting.

Being able to push boundaries is not what makes Public-Server Discord users insane. They're insane because they're tolerating a public Discord server.

 

[Arnox]

Being able to push boundaries is not what makes Public-Server Discord users insane. They're insane because they're tolerating a public Discord server.

I think it really depends. Some are dumb as fuck and cancerous, but some are alright, and maybe even a really good way to meet people.

 

[Gauche]

You would have to be insane to join a public discord channel.

I remember Caramel Frappe from The Escapist created a public discord for the Mafia forum game he was hosting - the discord channel was named Serial Killer and had an edgy Bloodborne image for the icon - after the forum game wrapped up peeps just hanged around in it but Frappe eventually left leaving it mod-less - randos would join in believing it was a room to chat about IRL serial killers and then one day some guy joined and started posting dick pix - left it after that

 

[Battousai]

I remember Caramel Frappe from The Escapist created a public discord for the Mafia forum game he was hosting - the discord channel was named Serial Killer and had an edgy Bloodborne image for the icon - after the forum game wrapped up peeps just hanged around in it but Frappe eventually left leaving it mod-less - randos would join in believing it was a room to chat about IRL serial killers and then one day some guy joined and started posting dick pix - left it after that

That's almost legit what happened in WoW server I was in, the guild leader insisted on having all the power so when he wasn't on it was a lawless wasteland. Some guy posted a link to something along the lines of an only fans page or whatever, saying that he would show us the goods for money. Somebody called his bluff withy the obvious "pics or it didn't happen" and lo the dude posted 3 pics of himself holding his dick. Fun times indeed.

 

[Arnox]

I remember Caramel Frappe from The Escapist

Heh. I do wonder what happened to them. I miss their forum games, which I did try to restart, but it looks like a lot of Sanctuarians aren't interested in that sort of thing, or at least, not anymore. :(

Also, I actually have some old-ass artwork saved but I don't know if it was done for Caramel Frappe or someone else. Was made by The December King.

Spoiler

 

[Too Much Screen Time]

Its search function has been taken down. The drama was fun while it lasted.

 

[Houseman]

Hacker news thread from the launch up til recently:

Show HN: A free, privacy preserving, archive of public Discord servers | Hacker News

news.ycombinator.com

I suspect there will be a second article about "what I learned" or something.